Party Planning Tip: Car Trunk Organizer turned Party Planning Organizer

We celebrated Grace's 2nd birthday on Sunday with a small-ish party with family. Joe's family is pretty large, so even a party of immediate family is a lot of work to pull off.  Especially since I started painting the trim throughout the house in the weeks leading up to the party.  (What was I thinking?) 

While setting up the food table, I found that I had a lot of extras (paper plates, cutlery, napkins, rolls, etc.). I started putting those extras away, trying to keep a mental note of where each item was stashed in case we needed to restock the buffet table. After realizing that I was really scattering things in too many spots of the kitchen and garage, I knew I needed to come up with a better solution. Otherwise, I'd never remember where the stuff was stashed once they were needed.

When I started making purchases for Grace's party (decorations, etc.), Joe set up a car trunk organizer in the garage to keep all of the party supplies in one spot.  It worked great for storing the supplies before the party, so why not keep all of the extras in one spot during the party? 

I quickly grabbed the organizer from the garage and filled it with anything that didn't fit onto the buffet table and then slid it under the food table.  Keeping it out of the way and close at hand at the same time. 

I think Joe needs to get himself a new car trunk organizer, since I'm keeping this one to use for my next party! 

Note:  This organizer also helped me to not go overboard on purchases for the party.  Deciding that any new purchases of decorations and supplies (food items not included) for the party needed to fit into that organizer.  Nothing more. 

I'll be sharing this post with the following blog hops and carnivals: 

• Works For Me Wednesday
• Tip Day Thursday
• Frugal Friday